Punjab DGP directs officials to ensure fair, peaceful poll

Chandigarh, March 19

Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav on Tuesday, directed all CPs/SSPs of the state to lay effective inter-state/inter-district barricades to increase vigil on the movement of anti-social elements, drug smugglers and bootleggers, and to mobilise the maximum force for area domination and confidence-building measures.

The DGP chaired a state-level meeting through video-conferencing from his office with senior police officers, Range ADGs/IGs/DIGs, CPs/SSPs, all gazetted officers posted in districts, and all SHOs in the state to review security measures ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. He apprised them about the guidelines of Election Commission of India (ECI).

Emphasising on the need to build a positive environment in the state, DGP Yadav directed all officers to engage in professional policing, strictly adhering to all aspects of the model code of conduct and to follow all the instructions and guidelines of the EC for a fair poll. “The instructions of the EC should be further disseminated with the entire force,” he said.

DGP Yadav said there was a complete ban on issuing of new arms licences. He also directed the CPs/SSPs to ensure weapons are deposited in compliance with the EC norms. He also asked them to frequently carry out checking at gunhouses to review the security arrangements and ensure that foolproof arrangements had been made by the owners for the safe storage of firearms.

He directed the officers to carry out mapping of vulnerable areas to identify the sensitive and hyper-sensitive spots so that extra force could be deployed to avoid any untoward incidents ahead of the General Election. He also directed all the officers to make special efforts to expedite the investigation and prosecution of cases of election-related offences.

He said that a special campaign had already been launched to arrest proclaimed offenders (POs) and parole jumpers and for execution of non-bailable warrants (NBWs). He said since the launch of the special campaign on January 1, police teams had arrested 2890 POs so far, while preventive action had been initiated against 2,456 persons under Sections 107/151 of the CrPC Act. Similarly, of 2,110 non-bailable warrants, 1,175 had been executed successfully.

The DGP also asked all the officers to operate with excellent inter-departmental liaisoning and cooperation so that all stakeholders worked in tandem to ensure peaceful elections.

Additional efforts

• 25 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have been deployed in vulnerable districts of the state to to dominate sensitive and hyper-sensitive areas. These include five coys of Central Reserved Police Forces (CRPF), 15 coys of Border Security Force (BSF) and five coys of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).
• A special campaign was launched to arrest proclaimed offenders (POs) and parole jumpers and for execution of non-bailable warrants (NBWs). Since its launch on January 1, police teams had arrested 2890 POs, while, preventive action had been initiated against 2456 people under Sections 107/151 of the CrPC Act. Similarly, of 2110 non-bailable warrants, 1175 NBWs had been executed successfully.